A 24-year-old German man from the municipality of Ischgl was lucky on Wednesday: when he fell, he caused an avalanche that dragged him about 300 meters away. The right equipment has saved the winter sports enthusiast from something worse.
The German was out with three ski friends at the Silvretta Arena in Ischgl on Wednesday morning and skied several off-piste descents with them. When the group wanted to descend from the Höllspitzbahn mountain station over the south ridge, which is located in the free ski area, around 10.20 am, an accident occurred.
Avalanche airbag kept the man upright
The 24-year-old entered the gully first and fell onto the wind-driven snow surface after just a few metres. An avalanche of snowdrifts immediately broke out, which caught the German and carried him away. Fortunately, the winter sports enthusiast quickly managed to deploy his avalanche airbag, forcing him back to the avalanche surface. After about 300 meters he was finally no longer in the snow.
His colleagues and other athletes who had observed the avalanche immediately alerted the emergency services.
Winter sports enthusiast was unharmed
An emergency medical helicopter, an avalanche dog handler from the Ischgl mountain rescue service, the slope rescue service and the Alpine police responded, but were able to clarify everything relatively quickly: further buried people could be excluded, and the person who was swept away was also incredibly lucky. He was unharmed; he only lost his equipment in the snow. The piste rescue team rescued the man and returned him to the ski area.
Source: Krone
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